Anthem Statement D2v

[Warpdrv]

I'm sure I don't have to reiterate all the info about this top tier PreAmp, its been widely acclaimed to be a very powerful and extremely flexible product with the list of features that goes on and on. http://statement.anthemav.com/HTML/Products/D2v/D2v.html

Well its been quite a wait, but I finally got my D2v after a 2 month delay from order. There was a shipping delay on a some internal components, but it finally made it to my house and its been up and running for a few days now...

So far, first impressions the SQ improvement coming from my Pioneer Elite receiver is a huge step up. ARC (Anthem Room Correction) has done wonders for my difficult room, although the sound stage hasn't really changed drastically, I was pretty happy with that, the corrections it made in my system are huge. If there was ever a challenging room for the D2v, my room would certainly be at the top of the list.

My room is extremely large and bright, which I have been slowly making improvements to with more sound panels and carpet is on the way. The upgrade has really made vast improvements in taming things down and tighting up the sound in there. There was alot of reverb in the room, ARC really changed and tamed that as well, and my subs sound much cleaner and tighter, then just using EQ with the SMS-1, but I still have that in my system to boost the EQ down low for my DIY sealed subs.

The video scaler is amazing, SD DVD's and streaming movies through my xbox media center has shown a vast improvement in picture upscaled to 1080p. I had a couple of video hitches at first, but quickly figured out the problem to be with the really old HDMI cable, which was never made or certified back when I bought it to pass 1080p bandwidth, now that I switched it out, everything works perfectly.

I am now running all XLR cables out to my SMS-1 and my Wyred4Sound amp, and the noise floor couldn't be lower. I seemed to have a buzz transferring through the RCA's from the Pioneer which is gone now as well...

So - there have been many improvements with adding the Pre-Amp to my system, I give it a big thumbs up and I am so happy with this addition. It comes with a pretty big price tag, but probably one of the largest improvements in my system thus far.

 

[bandphan]

Glad your enjoying. The video section of this pre is just superb and I haven't worked with better.

 

[jostenmeat]

Hey Warp, you lucky sonuvabich, can you please describe how flexible the EQ is? What is the HF cutoff implementation like? How many positions does it measure for? Did it take a long time? Dankz!

 

[Highbar]

Pics where are the Pics???

Glad you like it. Sounds like it was well worth the wait.

 

[Warpdrv]

ARC allows you to take up to 10 measurement positions.

The EQ is not adjustable, ARC measures the room and then applies the cuts and boosts to the FR on its own.... That is what this unit is all about, the processing power and ability to see what changes to the FR you are about to upload to the device before you do so, and also see the end results for each speaker as well as the subwoofer corrections that will be made.

As you can see there are some adjustments you can make as to crossover targets, room gain and how high the FR you would like it to make corrections up to, which will alter how much processing power it will use on the rest of the FR. The higher you set the MAX Freq. EQ the harder it will have to work to correct the entire FR.

Looking at the graph it shows the measured response, the target that it will be aiming for, and the calculated response of the finished product. Then you upload the corrections to the D2v and its loaded into the memory and uses those values when you have the ARC Eq engaged.

 

[walter duque]

That is some awesome looking Pre-Pro. Enjoy.

 

[Warpdrv]

Heres some pics for Y'all.....

 

[Lordoftherings]

Now! That's what I call some excellent news.

Congratulations! Warpdrv on this magnificent state-of-the-art component with top notch video processor that is the very best at the moment and a sound to die for with one of the very best proprietary digital automatic calibration/setup/EQ-correction scheme, the Anthem Room Correction (ARC1).

It might be expensive, but feel great about knowing that you now own the very best, and also the best value in high end pre/pro with state-of-the-art video processor (the Gennum VXP-based digital-video processor). I wish that I can afford it myself.

You are now officially becoming a very important person to which a lot of people are going to rely on for detailed analysis of your new pro tool toy.

Bests to you,

Bob

Note: For people interested in this Anthem Statement D2 A/V processor & ARC1, with rave reviews all over the planet: http://statement.anthemav.com/HTML/Products/D2/D2.html

 

[adk highlander]

Wow Warp nice buy. That is quite a jump from the 9.8/9.9 Integra that you were thinking about. What moved you to the Anthem. Did you think about the Denon prepro?

Seriously nice piece of gear. I'm glad it has given you such noticeable changes in your system.

 

[Warpdrv]

Thanks guys....

adk, it was really a hard decision to invest this kind of money into something as nice as the D2v, but there is no debating what it has brought to the plate in terms of getting everything right to help straighten out my situation. I looked at the Denon, but I'm a pretty simple user and didn't have any need for all the extremely large amount of frills it had to offer, no way I would ever need that much complexity. I'm sure its an amazing Pre-Amp and it is getting great reviews, but the D2v just seemed to fit my situation a bit better...

I could have easily bought 2 or 3 of the Integra's, 1 for each setup for what I have invested in this single product, but I am trying to head down a path that minimizes upgrading and dead ended products, the upgrade path of the D2v allows me to send it back to Anthem and update things down the line. Their Customer support speaks for itself, where Onkyo/Integra is pretty sketchy as I'm sure you have read from plenty of owners, I just didn't want to roll the dice and prey that I got a unit no issues. Heat was also a major concern for my small tight space, the D2v barely gets warm from what I have seen so far...

The Pioneers room correction was ok, but it left my speakers sounding so incredibly bright and harsh, but with ARC there is none of that - everything is just smooth - softer, and far more pleasant to the ears, but leaving nothing out. The highs are just perfect, where with the Pioneer it was just so ridiculously bright I had to dial the treble way down it was so fatiguing, not so now.... just an overwhelming sigh of relief for me. I was hoping it would be better but I had no incling it would be this drastic, and I'm not even done tweaking everything.

With ARC showing you everything for each speaker, it will reveal phasing issues, or drivers that are not working properly, out of phase with the other drivers of the same speaker - or even poor placement response, which allows you to adjust speaker postion until things look really good to the measurments... Hows that for Impressive...

 

[Davemcc]

Warp, that's awesome. I'm glad to see that you had such a dramatic improvement for the investment instead of the common incremental gain. I would love to play with some Anthem gear but my beer budget says Integra.

 

[adk highlander]

Wow the ARC software looks to give you more like the Pro version of Audyssey out of the box. I cannot really compare the Pioneer vs. Audyssey because my room changed so much I have not idea what MCACC would have done in my (almost) finished room.

Anthem seems to be one of the few companies that actually walk their talk when it comes to updating their products. It may not be cheap but I remember reading somewhere that original D2 owners could upgrade to what you have now which is very cool.

 

[Warpdrv]

Wow the ARC software looks to give you more like the Pro version of Audyssey out of the box. I cannot really compare the Pioneer vs. Audyssey because my room changed so much I have not idea what MCACC would have done in my (almost) finished room.

Anthem seems to be one of the few companies that actually walk their talk when it comes to updating their products. It may not be cheap but I remember reading somewhere that original D2 owners could upgrade to what you have now which is very cool.

No question that not needing a calibrator to take advantage of the Pro Audessy was a huge plus in my eyes, I like to keep things simple and my room changes would require multiple measuring from time to time, which I'm not interested in paying someone every time to take advantage of the benefits of the powerful room correction.....

I can't imagine that I will have to worry about updates any time soon, but that is a very nice feature that Anthem has, though it obviously comes at a cost in the end. Another huge benefit with Bob Pariseau over at the AVS forum in the Anthem tweaking thread, he is an amazing wealth of knowledge for us new to the product....

 

[rmk]

I could have easily bought 2 or 3 of the Integra's, 1 for each setup for what I have invested in this single product, but I am trying to head down a path that minimizes upgrading and dead ended products, the upgrade path of the D2v allows me to send it back to Anthem and update things down the line.

I took the opposite path due to my belief that this is an area that will be very volatile and, CE manufacturer’s promises of upgradability have been mostly unfulfilled. So I went with the "inexpensive" shorter term solution (Integra). It has been a great performer for me but based upon many reviews, you have purchased perhaps the best performing SSP available at any price.

The view from the top of the mountain is always best. Congrats!

 

[Lordoftherings]

Hey Warpdrv, you did mentioned couple very important points.

Anthem customer service is one of the very best, if not the Best, bar none.

And Bob Pariseau is a heck of a good guy, very supportive and always giving his best advice. And his thread is one of the most informative there is at AVS.

Just these two things are a big BONUS in your purchase, it is invaluable.

I'm going to save my dollars, and eventually get into the band-wagon with Anthem.

Cheers,

Bob

 

[ParadigmDawg]

Awesome Warp.

Now are you going to fix that ugly brace you made for the Credenza or at least stain it?

How much carpet are you adding? Don't cover up all the wood.

 

[Warpdrv]

Hahah Thanks Dawg....

Yeah, the carpet will only take up the seating area and the surrounding area, can't cover all the nice looking wood in there, its just too beautiful, and cut me some slack on the brace - hehehhehe Gotta lift up the stand to slide it to the rear of the console..... I moved all my pro amps for the subs to the basement, so I have more room behind the Plasma, and when I slid the console back, it didn't move so then became visible....

It'll get there, just takes some time heheheheh

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

That is one damn good looking machine.

Makes me kind of jealous.

 

[Chopin_Guy]

A little late, but congrats!!! That is an absolutely amazing and gorgeous peice of gear....I have always liked the Anthem components and this new one looks to be amazingly powerful and refined in function. Thanks for your impressions....

 

[croseiv]

Very impresive! I think this is the first time I've seen your set-up.